


Oh How the Embers Called

by JustAboveInsanity



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game), Dark Souls (Video Games), Dark Souls III
Genre: F/F, Here we go, This entire fic is based on a joke I told my friend (who does not play Dark Souls)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 06:54:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13518867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAboveInsanity/pseuds/JustAboveInsanity
Summary: "So swiftly the blood stopped echoing,To be replaced by a raging emberThat roared with promises of greatness."The Hunter has known only one call- that of the Blood, and its gentle song. But what if it heard another call, following events only undergone by one, long ago, who was soon forgotten to this time?What if that Hunter heard the war drums of the Fire, and the crackling of Embers within.





	1. Woeful Fate to the Addled

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first Soulsborne fic, and I found it only fitting to do a crossover of the two because no one could stop me.  
> The first chapter is rather short, but please don't judge the fic too harshly for that; chapters after this will be longer, I just needed to start it so I could push myself to actually write.  
> The rating might change later, if I take the suggestion of a friend seriously, but we'll have to see.  
> For now, enjoy! (And we'll learn the Hunters name come the next chapter, I promise.)

The loud ripping of fabric and the sick squelch of blood echoed in the empty courtyard, a choked gasp following shortly thereafter as the one who uttered it began to cough and wheeze.

"Sweet dreams to you, old friend. I'm sorry I couldn't save you, but the job had to be done."

A blood-addled Hunter merely clawed weakly at their attacker's face, leaving nothing but crimson stains on what skin poked out from the mask they wore. Their attacker sighed, shakily, and twisted the blade, wincing at the piercing howl that the other spat out. 

Were her hands free, she would hastily wipe away the tainted blood.

"Sh, shh... Rest. You have earned it. I'll give the Doll your final goodbye, I promise." She kept a firm grip on her blade with one hand and wrapped the other tightly around her former friend, ignoring the bitter bite of nails through her tattered garb. She'd never wash the blood out; not truly, not from him.

She waited for the body to stop twitching and for the blinded blue eyes to go dull before she dared to move any further, slowly sliding her blade from the newfound corpse's chest. Thick, blackened blood oozed from the wound, coating her gloves in the grime. She gagged, shakily smearing the mess on her trousers. It would all be gone in a moment anyway.

She took a deep breath, eyes closing as she muttered a silent prayer, and turned to the looming gate behind her. The Cathedral Ward was her destination; she would rather return through that lamp than make the trek past where Eileen's bloodstained lingered on the stone, for no amount of scrubbing could undo that mess, and even then the feelings would linger. The Blood would beckon.

She blotted out the memory with a grimace, tightening her grip on the Chikage she had been gifted, and moved forward.

She did not hear the hand swooping towards her til it was too late; she turned, yellow eyes wide with fear and surprise, and vanished by the whim of the Amygdala that ensnared her. Her hat floated, ever gently, down to the earth, and was illuminated beautiful beneath the blood moon.


	2. Indux Gundyr

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Hunter awakens in a place distant and unknown to her time.

A bell tolled ominously, and it was such an eerie sound that woke the Hunter from a sleep not unlike death. She lurched forward with a gasp, her heart racing wildly in her chest, as she gripped the coffin's rim. Her other hand went to her head, distantly noting the disappearance of her cap, before she processed what she had grabbed onto.

_Wait, what?_

She glanced down to her hand, which clasped the coffin's rim with enough intensity to snap most bones, before springing back, her spine slamming into the other side of the dusty stone as she held her hands closer to her chest. "What the fuck?!"

The Hunter held her hands together tightly, curling in and taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down. "Easy, easy. Keep it together, Alex. Worse things have happened. You've been dragged off in a bloody, burlap sack by Snatchers, for fucks sake. The Amygdala normally bring you to nightmares so just... just breath in. There's bound to be a lamp here somewhere, and then we can move on."

Not entirely convinced, she took one more breath, then proceeded to throw herself out of the coffin and into the dirt. She let out a small grunt, brushing off what appeared to be ash as she stood. 

"Where the hell- ... is that sunlight?" She broke off in awe, staring wide eyes at the sky in all its brightened glory. "I.. Where the fuck.. This is some sick joke if this is a nightmare."

Alex narrowed her yellow eyes into a glare, snarling as she unsheathed her sword and marched along. "You know what, fuck the sightseeing. This is just another Lovecraftian lie, I'm sure. Find the lamp and get the fuck out. There's no need to stick my head 'round here when I've run out of helping hands."

The last words were laced with a sorrowful bitterness, the memory of her only remaining friend's death still a fresh wound. A burden she would carry til she turned herself, she reckoned. Or til she died a truly final death, befitting a Hunter like herself. Like Eileen.

She shook herself again, then stopped cold, confusion locking her in place as she stared ahead at some hunched over, humanoid looking creature.

It wore a black cloak, or so it seemed, with a raised hood. She could see pale, shriveled limbs, and a knife clutched in one of its hands. Surely this was no human foe, and yet...

Alex took a bold step forward, holding the blade at the ready.

The creature spun around suddenly, evidently in response to the noise- or perhaps proximity. It let out a hoarse yell, more akin to a groan really, and lunged at her. The Hunter leaped to the side before the blade could touch her, thankful she had approached with apprehension. She rolled behind the creature and grabbed its shoulder, holding it in place and she ran her sword clean through the undead thing.

It gave a more timid groan, dropping its knife, and reached pitifully to grab the blade. Then, rather suddenly, it seemed to disappear into ash, and the familiar collection of echoes came to her. 

She stood still for a moment, trying to connect the dots as she slowly lowered her blade. She scratched her head with her free hand. "... Huh. Weird."

She shrugged, deciding to just be thankful her blade wouldn't require as much cleaning, and continued along the path. She came across a few more of the weird creatures, but made relatively quick work of them; they seemed to lack much understanding of the word around them, opting for quick thoughtless attacks and practically no defense. She'd fought Hunters with similar mindsets, and she equated them both to have about as many brain cells as the average Yharnam citizen- perhaps collectively.

She hesitated though, noticing a path off to the side. It was clearly not where she was meant to travel, given how important the area ahead seemed to be, but she decided that perhaps one quick detour was in order. Just to see what else was around.

As she approached, she noticed something etched into the earth, that seemed to glow with an arcane power almost. She frowned and crouched down to translate it, startled to find a decent bit of similarity between it and the language most notes in Yharnam were written in. "Perhaps.. even weirder," she mumbled to herself, resting her chin in her right palm as she read.

"Keep out? Or something like that. Mmm.. No thanks," she determined after a moment, standing upright before marching on through the water. Most things that people told her not to go through, she found, had treasures at the end- or some fiend that needed to be put down like the mad dog they'd become. So turning around wasn't much of an option, both because of the sweet call of loot and her duties. 

She walked out into a clearing, giving a small hum as she looked around. Her eyes caught something blue and shiny to her right. She took a few steps forward, then suddenly dived out of the way with an undignified yelp as the blue crystal covered monster rolled towards her rather quickly.

She stood up, quick in her recovery, and spun around to look at it.

The creature was large and covered in faintly glowing blue crystals, that gleamed even brighter as they caught the sunlight. It vaguely resembled a lizard, or so it occurred to Alex, just before she had the pleasure of leaping out of its next attack.

The Crystal Lizard had leaped forward swiftly, crashing into the earth where the Hunter had been standing mere seconds before. Alex stole herself and dropped back into her fighting stance, dashing forward to get in a few quick slashes on its crystallized hide.

The lizard spun around, knocking Alex onto her back before it began to rear up on its hind legs. Alex rolled to the side just in time for the creature to slam its front half down, missing her yet again by mere seconds. Thinking quickly, Alex rolled back, rising to her feet. She grasped the handle of the blade firmly in her hands, plunging it into her side before ripping it back out.

She sprinted forward yet again, jumping and stabbing the blood coated blade through the crystals. The creature thrashed about and Alex held on, trying to keep mind of her bleeding wound as she waited for the monster to still. It slowed down just enough for her to hop off, taking the blade with her. Before it could attack again she rushed it, slashing its head to ribbons as best she could before diving back again.

Battered, the creature gave another roar, taking in a deep breath before breathing out some sort of blue mist. Unsure what to expect, Alex took a few more steps back, flicking the blood from her blade before smashing a vial against her thigh. The blood soaked in greedily, and she felt a good bit of relief before watching the mist crystallize rather suddenly into big shiny masses.

The lizard charged forward once more and she rolled to the side accordingly, waiting for the lizard to crash into the wall behind her. Then, she spun around, letting out a shout as she dove in for a final killing blow.

The Crystal Lizard gave a death cry as it finally gave in, turning to ash and blood echoes like the other enemies she had faced.

With the enemy finally slain, Alex let out a sigh of relief, kneeling down in the dirt to catch her breath. She ran a hand through her hair as her heart rate slowed, the adrenaline from the thrill of a challenging Hunt finally dwindling down after a good many minutes had passed. Slowly she got back to her feet, looking down at where the giant lizard had died to find an item there.

Not unused to enemies leaving loot to her, though their bodies normally lingered to be searched, the Hunter shrugged and picked up the large unidentified thing. It was smooth, with writing etched into it, or so it seemed. Figuring it was important, or at the very least valuable, she placed it in her bag, retrieving the only other item in the area before heading back on the main path. 

While on the path she stopped briefly, eyes wide as she looked out over the horizon. Miles and miles of mountains framed it, with their snowy peaks gleaming in the light. She picked up her pace, careful not to fall off the edge, and faced forward as a structure appeared off in the distance. It was a large building with two towers, from what she could see- one of which appeared to have crumbled, perhaps due to age. It looked as though the path she was on would take her there.

She turned around, ready to continue on her way, before noticing a small stone circle filled with ash and a coiled sword. It looked like a bonfire, were it not for the fact that there was no flame within it.

Alex suddenly felt the urge to touch it as she approached.

Unable to resist, she carefully reached her hand out, her gloved fingers grazing the end of the sword before a magnificent flame burst from the ash. She jumped back, jarred for a moment, before noticing more glowing runes at her feet.

She glanced over them and frowned, though she ultimately decided to sit beside the fire and sort out her thoughts anyway. "What's Estus? Do the people in this land not use blood?"

She gave a small, thoughtful hum, closing her eyes. "A world without blood.. I supposed it'd be bad it I wanted to heal up, but maybe whatever this Estus thing is will be made available to me." Alex nodded slowly at the end of her statement, deciding that it was very probable. Things always seemed to work out, though sometimes not quite how they were expected or desired to. But they did work out.

Alex finally stood up from the fire, already mourning its gentle warmth. Shrugging it off, she trudged on, ready for whatever laid ahead.

And many things did lay ahead. The hooded figures, mostly. She made quick work of the ones she came across, acquiring an item in a lucky jump much to her amusement. After dropping down on one enemy and charging the next, she found herself at the threshold of some sort of arena, almost. At least, that's the impression it gave her. Not unlike a Colosseum, were it not for the fact that graves and candles lined one half of the structure while the rest crumbled into nothing.

In the center of this faux arena, a statue was kneeling, weapon at its side and a coiled sword through its chest. Alex quickly noted that the sword was the same as the one she saw in the bonfire, and that there was a large door behind the statue.

And as she grew closer, she also took note of the moving black parasite that was upon the statues back.

"Great," she grunted, bracing herself as she approached and grabbed the sword's handle. "I know how these things work. I pull this, you stand up, we fight to the death. Blah, blah, blah. Let's get this over with buddy." With that she slowly pulled the sword from its chest, putting it into her bag before drawing her Chikage.

She coated it in her blood, having plenty to spare at the moment, and raised it high as she waited. The second the fingers so much as twitched she swung down, hacking viciously at its head.

As the statue grabbed its halberd and stood, towering over her, a voice echoed in her skull.

**Iudex Gundyr.**

She had little time to question it, as the statue immediately swung at her, probably attempting revenge for the hits she had preemptively struck. She rolled just in time, feeling the halberd graze her hair as she moved. Now behind it, she pulled her sword back, tensing up before slashing forward with a vengeance, the tension releasing with a great portion of her blood as she slashed at its legs. 

It seemed to drop down to a kneel in response to this, and Alex quickly sprinted back around so she wouldn't miss her chance to bring in a heavy hit. She put one hand on the living statue's cold stone shoulder, raising her sword before driving it through its skull. She quickly ripped it back out with a twist, ash following the blade's movement as Gundyr stumbled back.

Thinking fast, Alex got one more hit in, slashing horizontally at the statue's torso as she flicked the hardened blood from her blade. She jumped back and braced herself, hesitating for a moment when she noticed the statue wasn't standing back up.

Suddenly the parasite burst forth from its back, consuming everything from the waist up on the statue. A long, grey hand burst from the left side of the mass, clawed and disgusting in design. Alex sneered, the call of the Hunt burning in her bones. 

Rather thoughtlessly, she raced forward; a bigger target surely meant more area for her to land her blows, did it not?

But the hand grappled her with ease, claws digging in before it threw her.

Alex rolled with the landing, grimacing at the hit but left relatively unharmed. She had suffered worse in Yharnam, after all. She stood back up and readied herself once more, leering at the towering black mass before it suddenly screeched.

The Hunter winced, tempted to cover her ears, but instead locked her eyes back onto the disgusting thing as it launched itself into the air, probably intent on crushing her. She rolled to the side, swiftly jumping back up to her feet and slashing at it yet again.

It lashed out with its hand once more, but this time she managed to dodge the blow, rolling towards the barely visible statue's legs.

The two continued their bloody tango for a little while longer, trading blows with Alex dodging the vast majority of them. This, too, seemed to be a creature that functioned on pure attack. It simply didn't process the danger it was in.

When Alex finally landed the crushing blow, she grinned wildly, hair thoroughly ruffled and dirt covering her clothes. It had been a satisfying hunt indeed.

Instead of pure echoes from the titan, she moved forward and grabbed an item off the ground- a soul. She felt entranced by the concept; souls? Not the sweet blood echoes she knew? But perhaps they were one and the same; she had read somewhere, perhaps in one of the many Byrgenwerth studies she'd dug up, that blood and the soul were entwined. It seemed reasonable.

Shaking her head she turned to head towards the door on the far side of the arena, pausing when she noticed a bonfire now laid in the center.

_That certainly wasn't there before..._ Alex thought curiously, slowly approaching it. She lit the flames within with her touch, resting briefly before pushing on.

Something about this building, which was now one short path away, seemed so important to her. She couldn't place it, but she felt that perhaps she would receive answers there- at least one, surely.

She pressed on, slipping past the undead that seemed to be focused on their own sufferings. She hesitated briefly at the opening, unsure if this was truly the best course of action, but pressed on, stepping in.

**Firelink Shrine.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's chapter two! Sorry if it seems rushed or something; again, feedback is appreciated if you have any suggestions or tips. I wanted to get another chapter out today to make up for how.. lacking.. the first chapter is.  
> As you can tell, this one was much longer!  
> And the Hunter's name is Alex.
> 
> You'll get a better description of Alex eventually, probably done from the perspective of another character, but if it takes a while to come up I'll draw her. Any questions can be answered though, if you have them. Just comment and ask away!

**Author's Note:**

> That was chapter one! Like I said, short. My apologies.  
> If you caught any errors or have any suggestions, feel free to comment with them, I don't mind. This is going up without review or revision because the person I was going to ask if offline and I'm impatient so. There's bound to be a few.  
> Anyways, happy Hunting to you all!


End file.
